But I'll embrace thee gentlier far than so;

As their fresh banks foft rivers do : Nor fhall the proudeft planet boast a power Of making my full love to ebb one hour; It never dry or low can prove,

Whilst thy unwasted fountain feeds my love.

Such heat and vigour shall our kisses bear,

As if like doves we 'engender'd there : No bound nor rule my pleafures fhall endure, In love there's none too much an Epicure:

Nought fhall my hands or lips control;
I'll kiss thee through, I'll kifs thy very foul.

Yet nothing but the night our sports shall know;
Night, that 's both blind and filent too!
Alpheus found not a more fecret trace,
His lov'd Sicanian fountain to embrace,
Creeping fo far beneath the fea,

Than I will do t' enjoy and feast on thee.

Men, out of wisdom; women, out of pride,
The pleasant thefts of love do hide :

That may fecure thee; but thou 'ast yet from me
A more infallible security;

For there's no danger I should tell
The joys which are to me unspeakable.

SLEEP.

IN

SLE E P.

N vain, thou drowsy God! I thee invoke;
For thou, who doft from fumes arife-
Thou, who man's foul doft overshade

With a thick cloud by vapours made

Can't have no power to fhut his eyes,

Or paffage of his fpirits to choke,

Whose flame 's fo pure that it fends up no smoke.
Yet how do tears but from fome vapours rife ?
Tears, that bewinter all my year?

The fate of Egypt I fuftain,

And never feel the dew of rain,
From clouds which in the head appear;

But all my too much moisture owe

To overflowings of the heart below.

Thou, who doft men (as nights to colours do)
Bring all to an equality!

Come, thou juft God! and equal me
Awhile to my difdainful She:

In that condition let me lie,

Till Love does me the favour fhew:

Love equals all a better

way than

you.

Then never more fhalt thou b' invok'd by me;

Watchful as fpirits and Gods I'll prove :
Let her but grant, and then will I
Thee and thy kinfman Death defy;
For, betwixt thee and them that love,

Never will an agreement be;

Thou scorn'ft th' unhappy, and the happy, thee!

BEAUTY,

B

BEAUTY.

EAUTY! thou wild fantaftic ape,

Who doft in every country change thy shape!

Here black, there brown, here tawny, and there white; Thou flatterer! which comply'ft with every fight!

Thou Babel, which confound'ft the eye

With unintelligible variety!

Who haft no certain What, nor Where But vary'ft ftill, and doft thyfelf declare Inconftant, as thy fhe-profeffors are.

Beauty! Love's scene and masquerade,

So gay by well-plac'd lights and distance made;
Falfe coin, with which th' impoftor cheats us ftill;
The ftamp and colour good, but metal ill!

Which light or bafe we find, when we
Weigh by enjoyment, and examine thee!
For, though thy being be but show,
'Tis chiefly night which men to thee allow :
And chuse t' enjoy thee, when thou leaft art Thou.

Beauty! thou active, paffive ill!

Which dy't thyself as fast as thou dost kill!
Thou tulip, who thy stock in paint dost waste,
Neither for phyfic good, nor smell, nòr taste.
Beauty! whose flames but meteors are,
Short-liv'd and low, though thou would'st feem a kar;
Who dar'ft not thine own home descry,

Pretending to dwell richly in the eye,
When thou, alas! doft in the fancy lie.

Beauty!

Beauty whofe conquefts ftill are made O'er hearts by cowards kept, or elfe betray'd; Weak victor! who thyself destroy'd must be When Sickness ftorms, or Time befieges thee! Thou 'unwholefome thaw to frozen age! Thou strong wine, which youth's fever doft enrage! Thou tyrant, which leav'ft no man free!

Thou fubtle thief, from whom nought fafe can be! Thou murderer, which haft kill'd, and devil, which would't damn me!

A

S men in Greenland left beheld the fun
From their horizon run,

And thought upon the fad half-year

Of cold and darknefs they muft fuffer there:

So on my parting miftrefs did I look ;

With fuch fwoln eyes my farewell took;

Ah, my fair star! said I;

Ah, those bleft lands to which bright Thou doft fly!
In vain the men of learning comfort me,
And fay I'm in a warm degree;

Say what they please, I fay and fwear

'Tis beyond eighty' at least, if you 're not here,

It is, it is; I tremble with the froft,

And know that I the day have loft ;

And thofe wild things which men they call,

I find to be but bears or foxes all,

Return,

Return, return, gay planet of mine East,

Of all that shines thou much the best!

And, as thou now defcend'ft to sea, More fair and fresh rife up from thence to me! Thou, who in many a propriety,

So truly art the fun to me,

Add one more likeness (which I'm fure you can) And let me and my fun beget a man!

H

ERE, take my likeness with you, whilft 'tis fo;
For, when from hence you go,

The next fun's rifing will behold

Me pale, and lean, and old:

The man who did this picture draw,

Will fwear next day my face he never saw.

I really believe, within a while,

If you upon this shadow fmile,

Your prefence will fuch vigour give

(Your presence, which makes all things live!) And abfence fo much alter me,

This will the fubftance, I the shadow, be.

When from your well-wrought cabinet you take it,
And your bright looks awake it,

Ah! be not frighted if you fee
The new-foul'd picture gaze on thee,
And hear it breathe a figh or two;

For those are the first things that it will do.

My